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HAMILTON McMaster University is seeking to set up an obesity treatment centre.
In conjunction with St. Joseph's Hospital and the London Health Sciences Centre, the university has submitted an application to the Ontario Ministry of Health asking it to fund a city-wide bariatric surgery program. The application includes a proposal for an academic program to conduct research into obesity and train physicians, surgeons and other health professionals in the care of bariatric patients.
The rationale behind the proposal is that the province is paying high prices for patients to go to the U.S. for bariatric surgery, while that money would be better spent increasing provision in this country, according to Dr. Arya Sharma, who runs an obesity centre at Hamilton General Hospital.
The university's application also follows a report earlier this year from the Ontario Health Technology Assessment Advisory Committee that highlighted a need for at least 4,500 bariatric surgery procedures a year in the province.
Even that is a conservative estimate, said Dr. Sharma,...